John Birch Society

noun

1. an ultraconservative organization, founded in December 1958 by Robert Welch, Jr., chiefly to combat alleged Communist activities in the U.S.

John Birch Society

noun

1. politics a fanatical right-wing association organized along semisecret lines to fight Communism

John Birch Society

1. A conservative organization prominent in the 1950s and 1960s. The society was particularly concerned with the dangers of communism, and its views were considered extreme by most Americans.

Word History and Origins

Origin of John Birch Society¹

C20: named after John Birch (killed by Chinese communists 1945), American USAF captain whom its members regarded as the first cold-war casualty

Example Sentences

Orange County was but a trifling gas stop on the way to San Diego, once a major outpost of the John Birch Society, the jurisdiction where the Ku Klux Klan, in 1924, briefly ran the city of Anaheim.

From Los Angeles Times

To better contextualize the GOP’s authoritarian redistricting strategy, I asked historian Matthew Dallek, who is the author of “Birchers: How the John Birch Society Radicalized the American Right,’ for his insights.

From Salon

Looking back at his first time singing, Escalante remembers the Vandals singer Dave Quackenbush telling him that he sounded like a “Republican who sounded like they just got out of a John Birch Society meeting.”

From Los Angeles Times

It opens with an interview of Scott Camil, a Brooklyn-born Floridian raised by a cop who was an active John Birch Society member; Camil joined the Marine Corps and served in Vietnam.

From Slate

Camil says his stepfather was involved in the John Birch Society and hammered into him that his job would be to stop communism in any way he could.

From Salon